by Archie Thomas, Merry Schrumpf, Corvallis
Theresa Manzella is a threat to the health of Ravalli County. Manzella needs to stop misleading her constituents and undermining Ravalli county healthcare institutions. Her public stance on Covid is literally resulting in more Ravalli county Covid deaths and infections. Two years into the pandemic her misinformation has contributed to Covid community spread, resulting in among other effects the inability of local nursing homes to protect their residents. To the extent she continues to support and spread anti vaccination misinformation she is contributing to current non-vaccinated county residents’ deaths and illness.
Local residents live and work hard to make ends meet as best they can. They need local representatives to be a positive force addressing concrete local issues with equally solid local solutions. Being a mouth piece for a national party’s conservative rhetoric is just that, “rhetoric”. The Omicron Covid variant doesn’t care your political position but only that you are not vaccinated. It is no longer acceptable to simply rail against what you oppose without defining what you support. The time of using lies without acknowledging the Covid reality or the 128 Ravalli County Covid deaths must stop.
It is time to just say “whoa to lies” on both the national and local level starting with Theresa Manzella.